Magnit and Skolkovo’s Accelerator Receives 777 Applications from Startups

In the past month and a half, 777 Russian and foreign startups submitted their applications to the MGNTech Accelerator under the joint program aimed at searching for and implementing innovative solutions. The projects touch upon virtually all areas of the Retail Chain’s activities. Now, experts from Magnit and Skolkovo will proceed to sel ect 20 most relevant projects that are going to be presented during the Demo Day this September and get a chance to launch pilots together with the Company.

Krasnodar, Russia (August 17, 2020): The vast majority of the projects proposed cover the following five priority areas: digital transformation (19% of applications), logistics and supply chains (14% of applications), marketing (13% of applications), operations (11% of applications), and HR (10% of applications). The greatest number of startups are registered from Moscow and Saint Petersburg, followed by proposals from Ekaterinburg, Kazan, and Novosibirsk innovators.

The startups that qualify for the MGNTech Accelerator will be presented to the 13 key business areas of the Retail Chain, which include operations, real estate and construction, finance, logistics, corporate governance, HR, in-house production, commerce, marketing, investments, and others. After presentations during Magnit and Skolkovo’s Demo Day, ten best projects will launch joint pilots with Magnit. Total investments into the pilots will amount up to RUB 50 m by the end of 2020, with Magnit expecting to gain a minimum total economic impact of RUB 1 bn in 2021-2022 from scaling the innovations.

Members of Magnit’s Management Board and key decision-makers of the company have joined the accelerator program. For effective testing of projects, a fast-track procedure is being implemented to allow for quick conclusion of contracts for pilots with startups.

"For Magnit, creating an accelerator is the first experience of this kind; we’re impressed by the number of applications and the active response from startups. We’re glad that we can become a platform for launching innovations and enable young companies to implement unique projects together with us. By leveraging the scale of the business, the multi-format operational model, and the expertise on the part of the Magnit team, and innovative approaches on the part of the accelerator participants, we want to find effective solutions for the development of the company, gain additional competitive advantages, and create a new customer experience", — said Evgeny Dzhamalov, Director of Innovation at Magnit Retail Chain.

“We’d like to thank the companies for their active response and interest in the competition. We received an unprecedented number of applications with a large number of unique solutions aimed directly at addressing the described challenges faced by Magnit's business. Furthermore, we want to mention our foreign participants — companies fr om China, the United States, Israel, and other countries submitted a number of solutions. There is a trend to shift the focus of projects towards the possibility of managing processes remotely, without personal human participation — robotic automation, “paperless” technologies, video analytics and artificial intelligence. For companies that do not pass the selection, Skolkovo mentors are ready to give recommendations for updating their solutions so that they suit Magnit’s requirements. We invite all companies to join the Retail environment at Skolkovo and become a member", — commented Olga Strelova, Director of Acceleration in Retail Technologies of the Information Technology Cluster of the Skolkovo Foundation.

Magnit and Skolkovo’s Accelerator receives 777 applications from startups